Quintus,

Many thanks for your letter - your really pick your assignments. This is going to be hard - are you quite sure you can't resolve this by armed diplomacy? How about getting to talk to Juba before you split his head? After all after Cilicia and our victory at Anazarbos last year against the Parthians you have quite a reputation.

As to Marcus, he went with us to Cilicia, he might as well go with you to Africa, after all he needs his military service if he ever wants to be a senator. Needless to say - I prefer him in one piece. Tell him daddy is proud of his decision to go with you and that's final.

Are you sending Quintus to Rome to work with me? He really could do with more experience in the courts and it will be good to have one of the youngsters with me. After all together, they can take an empire apart in 10 minutes - unfortunately it is usually ours. :-)))

Hope this still finds you in harbour. MTC.